Posts Tagged ‘Rockets’

May 21, 2015 · 9:01PM

OAKLAND, Calif. — Dwight Howard will play tonight in Game 2.

After suffering a left knee sprain the Western Conference finals opener against the Warriors Tuesday night, the Rockets center went through a pre-game warm-up at Oracle Arena and was pronounced ready to go.

When asked if he was receptive to just relying on the advice of team doctors and trainers during his own Hall of Fame playing career, Rockets coach Kevin McHale said:

“That was a whole different era and I didn’t listen to anybody. I just wanted to play and you have to have some part of you that feels you can contribute no matter what shape you’re in.

“Hey, you see me walk around now. I didn’t always make the best decision.”

May 21, 2015 · 2:59PM

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SAN FRANCISCO — Dwight Howard remains a game-time decision, but the situation appeared a bit more optimistic after the Rockets center went through a light workout at the morning shootaround while wearing a brace on his sprained left knee.

“We’ll see tonight. I felt pretty good out there today,” Howard said after spinning, dunking and putting up jump hooks with assistant coach Josh Powell at the Olympic Club. “The most important thing is that I’m 100 percent to play. I don’t want it to be something that bothers me for the rest of the series. I would rather get rid of all the pain or most of the pain so I can go and give my teammates 100 percent.”

At Wednesday’s practice, a somber Howard had said there was still a throbbing pain in the knee.

“It’s gone,” he said Thursday morning. “That’s a good sign. It didn’t swell up that much and it wasn’t as bad as it could have been from watching the replay.

“It’s improved a lot. I’m just happy that I was able to get out there on the court and do some work today. I think it will feel better tonight, but if not I’ll do whatever I can to give my teammates 100 percent.

“I want to be out there, but the most important thing is that I’m healthy for the whole series. I believe in my teammates. We trust in each other. I feel like if I was to miss tonight’s game, Clint (Capela), Joey (Dorsey) and the rest of the bigs will do a great job in my place. So I have no concern with that. I just want to make sure I do everything I can to prepare to play.”

Howard missed 41 games during the regular season due mostly to pain and swelling in his right knee. The Rockets were 29-12 when he played and 27-14 without him in the lineup. They give up 104.7 points per 100 possessions with Howard playing and 111.7 when he’s out.

The 6-foot-11 center wore a brace with metal supports to stabilized the knee, but seemed to move fluidly as he rolled to the hoop as Powell tossed him passes.

“It feels better than when they put a lot of tape on before the brace,” Howard said. “It’s kind of weird. With the brace on, it really helped out.”

Howard’s demeanor seemed quite different from 24 hours earlier when he sat out practice entirely and glumly talked to the media with an ice-pack taped to his knee.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “I just tried to not think about it too much and just allow my body to heal and not put stress on it and just think positive.

“I really didn’t get a chance to do a lot of running (today). All the stuff I did was in the half court, so we’ll see how it feels tonight. Hopefully I’ll be able to play and give my teammates everything. But like I said, the most important thing is that I’m healthy enough to play the whole series and I don’t want this to be something that lingers throughout the rest of the playoffs. I want to nip it in the bud and just go play.”

May 20, 2015 · 8:24PM

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OAKLAND, Calif. — Even Clint Capela didn’t think this could happen.

Seven months ago, the rookie arrived in training camp hoping to find a place in the Rockets future. Two months ago, he was in the NBA D-League toiling for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

Now, if a sprained left knee keeps Dwight Howard out of Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, Capela might find himself in the starting lineup against the Warriors. Or at the very least, getting significant playing time.

“When I was in the D-League, no, I would not think this was possible,” said the precocious 21-year-old native of Geneva, Switzerland. “I thought I’m not going to play this year, maybe next year. I was just trying to keep working hard and be ready when they would call me up.”

But with a live, aggressive body and a willingness to learn, Capela forced his way into the consciousness of the Rockets coaching staff and then into the playing rotation.

“Clint came in early in the season from the D-League because we’d been having injuries and we needed him to practice,” said coach Kevin McHale. “Then everyday you watched him in practice, you liked him a little bit more. We’re like, ‘Man, he’s playing better and better and better.’ He’s an easy guy to coach. He’s easy guy to gain confidence in because he’s so diligent and he’s just a hard-working kid.”

A kid who coincidentally was born in the year (1994) when the Rockets won their first NBA championship behind superstar center Hakeem Olajuwon and now is being regularly tutored by the Hall of Fame most days in practice.

“He tells me just little details on the game,” Capela said. “How I can defend. Attack on offense. What I can do now. What I will be able to do later. Just little things like that.”

The little things have added up to produce moments through the Rockets playoff run this spring when Capela is taking a feed from James Harden or Josh Smith to slam home a dunk or is coming from out of nowhere on defense to rise up and reject a shot. There is buoyancy to a his step, an insouciance to his demeanor that tells you that the moment will not overwhelm him and he feels right at home.

“Yeah, I know it’s the D-League to the NBA, but I feel like it’s just the same sport,” Capela said. “It’s just basketball and we’re all human. OK, the leagues change, sure. But in my mind I’m saying, ‘I’m just going to play basketball and that’s it.’ ”

Capela played 13 minutes after Howard was injured in Game 1, shooting 4-for-4, scoring nine points and pulling down four rebounds in 13 minutes. Most impressive was the way he consistently and fearlessly stepped outside to defend guard Stephen Curry, the league’s MVP.

“Even when I was younger, I was the bigger one, but I was always trying to defend all the little guards,” Capela said. “Because I always had the quick feet. It was pretty exciting to be able to be on (Curry). I hope I do better next time. In my mind, I think I can stop (him), do something.”

Howard says if the rookie has take on the burden of his minutes, there’s only way for the Rockets to approach it.

“Just gotta let him play,” Howard said. “Only advice I can say is he’s just gotta go out there and play as hard as he can. For his first playoff run, he’s done an excellent job of giving it everything he’s got.

“He’s been in the D-League for most of the year. Then to come out here and play with us, getting the minutes that he’s getting, he’s done an excellent job of playing defense and getting up on those guards…I think he’s playing great. I’m really proud and happy for his growth as a player.”

May 20, 2015 · 7:34PM

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OAKLAND, Calif. — They played exactly half the 82-game regular season schedule without Dwight Howard and still were able to secure the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. So the Rockets will not feel overwhelmed or over matched against if they have to take the court Thursday night without their eight-time All-Star center.

“We hope he plays,” said swingman Corey Brewer. “But if he doesn’t play, we’re just gonna be ready to go.

“Nothing changes. Clint (Capela) is gonna step in. We still have T.J. (Terrence Jones) and Josh (Smith). We still have big guys. We just have to keep playing our game.”

Howard sat out practice to get treatment and put keep ice on his left knee that was injured in the first quarter of Game 1 of the Western Conference. Following an MRI Wednesday morning, Howard’s injury was changed from a bruised to a sprained knee and his status to play in Game 2 is now listed as questionable.

“I’ll just stay positive and not allow it to defeat me. I’ve gone through so much this season that I won’t allow this to stop me from doing what I have to do to stay healthy.

“Don’t allow any doubt or negativity to run through my mind. It’s just a freak incident that happened and I’m not going to allow this to change my energy or my mood toward our goal and the positivity we have brought to this team.”

Howard was hurt when teammate and best friend Smith fell into his left knee midway through the first quarter when the two of them were trying to chase down an offensive rebound. He wound up playing 26 minutes in the game, but never had the ability to move around or jump after the injury.

“It was very painful to play last night and the coaches felt like it was best that I sat out the rest of the game,” said Howard, who was on the bench for virtually the entire fourth quarter. “I tried to play on it, but there was really nothing I could do last night.”

Howard missed 41 games during the regular season with painful swelling in his right knee, including a six-week stretch from February through March after undergoing platelet rich therapy. He’s averaged 16.4 points, 13.8 rebounds and is shooting 58 percent in the playoffs.

If the Rockets are going to have a real chance of taking down the No. 1 seeded Warriors — who are now 5-0 against Houston this season — they’ll need to use superior size and strength to hammer away at the middle of the Golden State defense.

But Howard said if his knee doesn’t feel different than the latter part of Game 1, he won’t have a choice.

“I’d have to sit,” he said. “I have to listen to my body. The most important thing is I’m healthy. Nobody can understand an injury but the person that’s injured. This is gonna be on how I feel. If I feel I can tolerate it and go out there and play on through, then I will. But my career’s the most important thing. I want to do whatever I can to help this team, but I can’t help the team if I’m hurting.

May 19, 2015 · 2:20PM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS —Charles Barkley is not afraid to admit when he’s wrong.

He just can’t remember the last time he was actually wrong about something.

Like many of us, though, he couldn’t have predicted the Final Four field facing off for the right to play for the NBA title, well at least not three of the four teams.

LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers making the Eastern Conference finals is by no means a surprise. But their opponent, the Atlanta Hawks, and the two teams in the Western Conference, the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, weren’t on everyone’s preseason list to make it this far. Those slots were supposed to be reserved for the blue bloods, the franchises used to working this late in a season, not these upstarts from around the league.

Stephen Curry and James Harden, the top two finishers in the voting for the KIA MVP award and now the combatants at the center of the Western Conference finals, had other ideas.

So did Al Horford and those three other All-Stars the Hawks will deploy against James and his crew in the Eastern Conference finals. The revolution will be televised this year and who better to analyze it all than the biggest star of TNT’s Inside the NBA crew, who joins us on Episode 202 of The Hang Time Podcast Featuring Charles Barkley.

Dive in to see who we all think comes out on the other side of a heated Final Four round of the NBA Playoffs on Episode 202 of The Hang Time Podcast Featuring Charles Barkley …

NEWS OF THE MORNING

No. 1:Rockets survive the chaos to return to conference finals — The righteous rally from that 3-1 series deficit came with the fairly tale ending the Houston Rockets imagined, complete with the unusual suspects providing many of the highlights. But no one should dismiss the obstacles and adversity the Rockets faced in storming to three straight wins in their Western Conference semifinal showdown against the Los Angeles Clippers. Our very own Fran Blinebury, a man who chronicled past championship teams in Houston, puts the accomplishments of this current Rockets crew in context:

The Rockets didn’t just return to the Western Conference finals for the first time in nearly two decades. They did it in the very same manner as their famous forebears, with the kind of escape worthy of the Great Houdini.

Down 3-1 in a best-of-seven playoff series. They stood with their toes dangling over the edge of the cliff for three straight games and never felt their knees buckle.

Down by 19 points with less than 15 minutes to play in Game 6, they never blinked.

Son of Clutch City. Clutch City Jr. Clutch City 2.0. Pick your descendant.

“There’s only a handful of teams that have done that,” said the resurrected MVP runner-up James Harden after 31 points, eight assists and seven rebounds in the clincher. “We were locked in since being down 3-1. We just said one game, one game, one game.”

When it finally came down to that one game — Game 7 — on a throwback Sunday afternoon at Toyota Center, they grabbed it by the neck from the opening tip and weren’t going to let go until the Clippers ultimately surrendered and the 113-100 victory was complete.

Harden attacked at the offensive end. Dwight Howard was tall and ferocious at the defensive end and every other player that coach Kevin McHale ran out onto the court kicked in his own contribution in some way. International veteranPablo Prigioni, on his 38th birthday, was every bit as important as either of the two marquee stars with his steals and his hustle and his relentless smarts.

This kind of comeback, this kind of emotional turnaround, doesn’t happen without a total buy-in from every single man on the roster. There cannot be a weak link, a single crack in the wall that allows doubt to leak through.

“The guys that we have in this locker room, it’s easy to get down 19 on the road and then just give in and say, ‘Maybe next year,’ ” Harden said. “But I think the injuries this year, throughout the entire year, it’s kind of made us fight through adversity no matter what. So we’ve always been short, down a man It’s always finding a way to get through, finding a way to fight it.”

That the overwhelming capper came just seven days after the Rockets had been whipped and beaten down and humiliated in Game 4 at Los Angeles to dig their 3-1 hole was surprising. That it came at the end of three straight desperation games was positively shocking. And it could be another two decades before another Rockets team — or any other, for that matter — matches that electric comeback.

“It just tells us that we are capable of winning three games in a row,” said McHale. “The guys in there just had a lot of fight and we don’t get to this if not for Trev [Ariza], [Corey] Brew[er], Josh [Smith], Dwight and Jet [Jason Terry]. What they put on in that fourth quarter in Game 6 was amazing. That 40-15 run, you don’t see that very often and I’ve been in this league for a long time.”

May 17, 2015 · 9:39AM

No. 1:Rockets-Clippers reaches seventh heaven or hell — Very few words generate more buzz, more excitement, more stomach-churning anticipation than this: Game 7. After all the back-and-forth, all the blowouts and all the missed opportunities on both sides, now the Rockets and Clippers will settle the matter of who gets the last spot in the NBA’s version of the Final Four today when they square off at Toyota Center in Houston. Our Fran Blinebury says it will be remembered as the tale of comeback or collapse, depending on your perspective, when the matter finally comes to a head:

History and the home court gives the Rockets a decided leg up before the opening tip. Road teams have won just 24 of 119 Game 7s in NBA playoff history and only eight teams ever have come back from the 3-1 deficit in a best-of-seven series that Houston is attempting. The last time it happened was in 2006.

However, the Clippers faced the same situation in 2012, letting a 3-1 lead over the Grizzlies turn into a 3-3 tie and throat-tightening time. But they went into Memphis and won Game 7. The Clippers have also won seventh game showdowns last season against the Warriors and in the first round this season over the defending champion Spurs. In Las Vegas, the odds makers have the Clippers as a two-point favorite.

***

No. 2:Ailing Irving held out of practice — The countdown clock to the Eastern Conference finals is down to three days and it looks like Cavs’ point guard Kyrie Irving will be happy to use up every single minute of that time as he hopes to heal a left knee injury that was tweaked in the close-out Game 6 win at Chicago. He’s also got some some other aches and pains, so our Steve Aschburner notes that Irving — uncertain for Game 1 against Atlanta on Wednesday night — was just a spectator when the rest of the Cavs hit the practice court on Saturday:

With days to go before the Eastern Conference finals begin in Atlanta, it wouldn’t have been shocking if the Cleveland Cavaliers’ entire squad had been held out of practice Saturday. But since most of their players did participate, point guard Kyrie Irving‘s lack thereof was duly noted by assembled media.

As the folks at Ohio.com reported:

[Irving] was held out of practice Saturday after reaggravating a left knee injury in Thursday’s closeout Game 6 against the Chicago Bulls.

An MRI on Monday revealed tendinitis in Irving’s knee. Irving has also been battling a right foot strain suffered in Game 2 of the first-round series against the Boston Celtics.

Cavs coach David Blatt said Irving saw the doctors again Friday. Blatt couldn’t give a definitive assessment of Irving’s status for Wednesday’s Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Hawks in Atlanta, but said the Cavs “hope” he can play.

“He going through a lot of treatment and we’re monitoring and just hoping that he progresses from here until game time,” Blatt said.

***

No. 3: Kerr is guided by his father’s legacy — There are many reasons why the Warriors have advanced to the Western Conference finals for the first time in nearly four decades, but none more so than coach, Steve Kerr. Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News tells the wonderfully poignant story of the man who shaped Kerr, his father Malcolm, who was gunned down by an assassin in Beirut back in 1984. It is highly recommended reading:

Kerr spoke at length about his childhood during a recent interview and credits both parents, working in concert across continents, to provide “everything I needed.” But in personality, Kerr said, he is wired like his father: Reserved but passionate (the father about Lebanon, the son about basketball), thoughtful but possessing a razor wit.

Kerr’s memories remain vivid all these years later, and he rattled them off: There is Malcolm, reading The New Yorker in the stands at Dodger Stadium. There is Malcolm, coming home from the office and making popcorn. There is Malcolm, emerging from his study to shoot baskets in the driveway.

And there is Malcolm, patiently waiting for his enraged son to settle down.

“He set such a good example,” said Kerr, who has three children. “I’ve tried to be the same way with my kids.”

The lessons imparted at home and the experiences gained overseas — “They all got thrown into bathwater and survived,” Ann said — combined to shape Kerr’s worldview, foster a sense of empathy and sharpen his interpersonal skills.

Those same skills would help carry him through a 15-year NBA career — a second-round draft pick, he won five NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs — and ease his transition to coaching.

“I developed a lot of compassion living in Egypt, seeing the poverty,” he said. “The discussions around the dinner table about world politics and understanding how fortunate we were — all that helped me gain perspective on life.

“That helped with teammates when I was a player and now as a coach.”

***

No. 4: Bulls and Thibodeau need detente — Let’s face it. Despite all of the supposed excitement in the front office over Fred Hoiberg, there will be a learning curve if Fred Holberg makes the jump from the college ranks to head coach of the Bulls. And despite the fact that he’ll have his pick of the jobs in Orlando and Denver and New Orleans, Tom Thibodeau will have considerable building to do before he gets those teams to the current level of the Bulls. So David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune says the best shot at a championship for both sides is to find a way to work and stay together:

Unless Thibodeau’s successor is Doc Rivers or Gregg Popovich, no new coach will be more qualified to get the Bulls to the NBA Finals quicker. Unless Thibodeau unseats David Blatt in Cleveland — possible, but still a long shot — it’s hard to imagine any team Thibs inherits being closer to winning their conference than the Bulls. Sorry, drama kings, both Thibodeau and the Bulls are better together than apart.

Compromise should be the goal — not the enemy — for Thibodeau and the Bulls management tandem of Gar Forman and John Paxson. It should be imperative to Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf that he intercedes to help them achieve it. Reinsdorf, 79, should understand that letting Thibodeau go now realistically removes the urgency from next season. Any new coach introduced, whether it’s Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg or Warriors assistant Alvin Gentry, delays any realistic championship run.

Creative tension is great until it shatters a championship window. With the White Sox, Reinsdorf presided over the soap opera that played out between then-general manager Kenny Williams and manager Ozzie Guillen. With the Bulls, back in 1998, Reinsdorf oversaw the clash of then-GM Jerry Krause and coach Phil Jackson. At least those previous odd couples won titles together before divorcing. The Bulls and Thibodeau are on the verge of splitting before ever playing into June.

As the Rockets took off, the Clippers crumbled. They missed 15-consecutive fourth-quarter shots, many coming at the rim or on rushed, but open jumpers. They made just 4 of 22 shots in the fourth quarter with Chris Paul tacking on a 3 at the buzzer as the teams headed to the locker rooms.

“They outplayed us in every sense of the word down the stretch,” Blake Griffin said. “We took our foot off the gas, stopped defending, a lot of things. Got to be better.
“You could tell we kind of got stunned, and we didn’t respond well.”

When the Clippers were rolling, Griffin had put the exclamation point on their run with a 360-degree spin in the air on a layup. He was 12 of 15 for 28 points after three quarters, then missed all five of his fourth-quarter shots.

“There was times where it just seemed like everything was going their way,” Howard said. “Blake hit 360, 180, I don’t know what it was, and I said, ‘Man, this is crazy.’ But we pulled together, we just kept saying we’re not going to quit, we’re not going to give up, we done come too far just to end it like this, and we just kept fighting.

“Josh hit some big shots. Everybody played great tonight, and we never quit. That’s why we got the win tonight. We kept believing, no matter how tough it got out there, because there was some rough times out there. As a team, we never gave up on each other.

The Clippers did not give up. There was not time for that. But they did break down, missing the sort of shots that had built the lead and led to the blowouts over the weekend.

“You know, I thought we were trying to run the clock out, and we stopped playing,” Clipper coach Doc Rivers said. “They kept playing, and then once it got to eight, you could just feel it.

“I don’t think they thought that they had the game in the bag. I thought they thought, we walk the ball up the floor. I thought we got very tentative offensively, very few people even wanted to shoot in stretches, and you know, it happens. But it’s awful to watch. It’s awful for our team, and we have to figure out in the next 48 hours how to get them back, because we can’t get this one back. We gave this one away. There’s no doubt about that.”

Whether the Clippers gave it away, the Rockets took it or some combination of both, the teams head to Sunday’s Game 7 rolling in opposite directions. As Game 6 demonstrated, that does not mean much.

“I played in a lot of games in my life and you can get the vibe of games and think you have the chance to win,” Brewer said. “Like Trevor (Ariza) said at the beginning of the fourth – he said we are going to win a championship, but we have to win this game first.

May 12, 2015 · 4:48PM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — Survive and advance.

That is the phrase all of the teams still alive in the NBA playoffs should have plastered on those shirts splashed across the seats in the arena on game day.

Survive and advance. It’s what the best of the best do on the rugged road that leads to The Finals.

Derrick Rose, Paul Pierce and LeBron James — buzzer-beater heroes for their respective teams over a wild playoff weekend — know exactly what we’re talking about on Episode 201 of The Hang Time Podcast: Survive and Advance.

It’s the same attitude James Harden must have if the KIA MVP runner-up wants his season to continue beyond tonight’s Game 5 showdown against the Los Angeles Clippers. The same attitude KIA MVP Stephen Curry showed in the Golden State Warriors’ season-saving Game 4 win in Memphis against a Grizzlies team that had Curry and his screw on the edge heading into that pivotal tilt.

The aesthetics are meaningless at this stage of the season.

No one really cares if you win big or win in style.

The only thing that matters is that you survive and advance to the next round.

Tune in to see who we think will accomplish that goal on Episode 201 of The Hang Time Podcast: Survive And Advance

May 11, 2015 · 3:03PM

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LOS ANGELES — In non-foul news, sort of, Chris Paul said he continues to recover from the strained left hamstring that sidelined him the first two games of the Western Conference semifinals against the Houston Rockets amid the possibility he could reach a full workload Tuesday night as the Clippers try to advance to their first-ever Western Conference finals.

He only inched from 23 minutes in Game 3 to 26 in Game 4, but that barometer is misleading because he only played 10 minutes in the second half and three in the fourth quarter because he was not needed as L.A. cruised to a 128-95 win. Paul looked healthy enough to have logged more time, possibly much more, if needed.

Getting blown out would have been help enough, but the Rockets also did their part with the failed game plan of constantly intentionally fouling Clippers center DeAndre Jordan. Thattactic slowed Game 4 down so much that Paul rarely had the kind of extended stretches of constant movement that could have severely tested his hamstring. There was little need to take Paul out of the game until there was little need to keep him in.

Said coach Doc Rivers, asked after the win how he thought the All-Star point guard and whether Paul’s minutes would be increased Tuesday as the Clippers took their 3-1 lead to Houston: “I have no idea. Today it was funny because that’s where the Hack-a-Whatever-You-Want-to-Call-it — I still think we should call it the Haq-a-Shaq in honor of him — that’s where the Hack-a-Shaq help is. We were going to take CP out and I turned to (trainer Jasen Powell) and I said, ‘He’s just walking down the floor every time.’ Even though the minutes were ticking, there was no basketball going on so he could stay in, and JP agreed with that. But moving forward, I just don’t know, Again, every step he takes makes the coach nervous.”

Paul averaged 34.8 minutes in the regular season and 39.3 in the first round, big minutes as the Clippers and Spurs played several close games that allowed little rest. The pace in Game 4 — an approach that could continue Tuesday — plus Rivers being able to conserve the minutes plus a day off Monday likely leads to continued health improvement.

“I’m sure they’re not fouling to make sure my hamstring feels good, you know what I mean?” Paul said. “If so, I appreciate it, I guess. I don’t know. I’m feeling better. I think that’s all that matters. We’ve just got to stay hungry for the game on Tuesday.”

Meanwhile, Paul’s backup, Austin Rivers, followed up his starring role with 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting off the bench in Game 3 with another good showing. He had 12 points in 24 minutes while going 5-for-9 overall and 2-for-3 on 3-pointers.